TABLE OF CONTENTS The first priority in written communication is to ensure that the messages actually reach their destination. Check fax numbers and addresses, check that the document has arrived and pop a hard copy in the post just to be on the safe side.
For any written communication, it pays to make the reader's task as simple as possible.
Identify the writer, target, purpose and content clearly.
Make it easy to read by:
keeping it short and simple (KISS);
using plain and simple language;
making the key messages clearly visible;
laying the document out so that it's easy to read.
Accuracy, Brevity and Clarity (ABC) are a must for all written communications.
Use plain words because:
it makes your material easier to understand;
it gives a good impression of you as a person;
both you and the reader understand what you are saying.
In the English language there are many different ways of saying practically everything. On the whole the shorter ways are better: they will help your messages get through more easily.
The flowery old-fashioned language that used to be normal in 'business correspondence' has little place today, though some organizations prefer more formality than others.
On the whole, you communicate better when you use direct forms of writing and show the reader that you are a human being, and do not pretend to be a machine or an organization.
Its written communications may be one of the factors by which quality is judged in an organization.
Your writing...
